These May/June SPIN Best New Artists honorees release their joint mixtape Chrome Lips on August 28 via Mishka/Dovecote, and lovesick “M00N” (via Fake Shore Drive) is an impressive glimpse of what the cloudbusting-rapper and the footwork-chillwave hybridists can do together. Where previously unveiled “Dummy” appeared to revel in the combination’s mere existence, bringing to mind people’s bleaker misconceptions about like-minded trunk-spookers SALEM, “M00N” shows how Maul can handle serious subjects with both wisdom and charisma, while Supreme Cuts’ ghostly, King Crimson-sampling rumble ‘n’ ooze perfectly conveys the narrator’s horrifying unrequited lust.

There’s a definite Drake ca. “HYFR” cadence to the verses, but the song would be a startling fit on a playlist alongside, say, John Maus’ similarly unsettling obsession song “Bennington.” Maul’s strangled yawps ensure that, as with that similarly named Ariel Pink acolyte, it’s up to us to decide the extent to which his protagonists are in on their own darkness. Like, how many times did you listen to “Every Breath You Take” without realizing it basically reworked “Stand By Me”? Sean Kingston’s “Beautiful Girls” has an unwholesome side, don’t you agree?

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Alessandro Cortini tends to surround himself with darkness. The Italian producer is most infamous as a torturer of modular synths and other bleak electronics for Los Angeles’ most famous industrial-goths, Nine Inch Nails. His previous solo LP, Sonno, slinked out on Prurient’s Hospital Productions — a bastion of the crepuscular, if there ever was one. And… More »